Friday, August 3, 2012

Ready to Go, MLS Value

Here are some Major League Soccer players that are young, underpaid and very, very good. I'll call it the "Future Star / Currently a Value Team". Admittedly, that's a bad name for a team but hopefully it's descriptive enough to explain this list I'm about to provide.

Put these guys together on one team and you not only have about the best MLS team, you also have the cheapest.

1. Outperforming their MLS Salary
2. Young, low mileage
3. Haven't bounced from club to club
4. High Helltown Player Rating
5. No 'keeper. 50% of MLS have a decent one

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I'm on a Major League Soccer value/bargin kick because the players in it are often incorrectly identified in their formative years. Also, the timing is good because the "international transfer window" is about to go into Hulk Smash mode. Lots of gems floating around in this league. I tried to find players that are still developing through MLS and not paid a whole lot.

Most of these guys are one college, one team players (Saer Sene and Ryan Johnson being exceptions).

Again, these are guys who are relatively untouched yet performing well in Major League Soccer. Part of me hopes that England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain look this way for physically developed talent. The other part hopes that MLS starts to let this talent go and re-invests the money they bring in to help raise / change the existing club salary restrictions.

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For the Crew folks: Josh Williams easily tops performance metrics for the club but he also finds his way atop my league lists. He's having an exceptional first "real" season. His core competencies and physical ability appear to be top level as well. Cream rises to the top and Williams is moving up there.

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Lastly... I try and maintain a place where you can find all MLS player stats, all together. You can find that here: Link.